Referrer spamming with unknown domains

Why spammers use domains that don't lead to websites

[andymerrett]

OK, this one has been bugging me. I understand, in theory at least, why referrer spamming using real URLs is done - but why would a spammer use a non-existent domain as their referrer?

Any ideas? I am merely curious - it makes little difference as my site blocks spammers from commenting or referring, regardless of the validity of their URL.

Have they perhaps registered these domains and are waiting until a certain spam threshold has been reached, before launching them?

[larryhatch]

Are the bogus 'referrers' downloading most or all your regular pages?
Are they downloading _just_ pages but not images?
If lots of pages with no images, they might be looking for email spam
addresses or related weaknesses (form-mail etc.) - Larry

[andymerrett]

Hi Larry,

They are blog spammers. They're either looking for comment forms to post spamvertising links to, or they try to use the trackback feature, or they're just visiting in order to get a referral visit. They hit valid pages on my site.

My tests (using htaccess redirects and fake forms) have shown that when they find a form they spam it frequently, and that they are quite happy evolving to fit the form (fields, GET/POST etc.) so they're not targetting just standard blog form formats. They'll spam any form.